Roy Keane - End of Relationship With
Sir Alex Ferguson

It is widely accepted that
Alex Ferguson and Roy Keane were kindred
spirits. Both were driven men with a passion for winning. One of the reasons
that they got on so well together for so long is that they shared common
goals and agreed on a common approach on how to achieve those goals. Ferguson
thought so highly of Keane's ability as footballer that the Scot made
many concessions to the Cork man during Keane's
career when he got out of line.

Whatever about behind the
the scenes, Ferguson always supported Keane in public even in circumstances
that had the potential to damage Ferguson's own public credibility. He
took this to the extreme when he
absurdly defended Roy
Keane when he admitted that he had deliberately set out to injure
Alf-Inge Haaland. The bond between
Ferguson and Keane appeared to be unshakeable - but only so long as Keane
continued to deliver on the pitch and so long as his respect for Ferguson
remained in tact.

Red Mist on the Horizon

On 18 November 2005 Roy
Keane left Manchester United under a cloud. The United team was just eleven
matches into the 2005/06 season and already 10 points, in fourth place,
behind the leaders Chelsea. Such powers of English soccer, Wigan and Bolton
Wanderers, were ahead of United. United had not won the premier league
since the 2002/03 season. Chelsea had won the league the previous season
and looked set to dominate English soccer for years. Keane had been injured
against Liverpool FC in mid-September
and his mood was not good. Apparently Keane shared the view, as expressed
by a number of Manchester United fans, that Ferguson had delegated too
much power over team affairs to coach Carlos Queiroz.

Keane Slates Team Mates

Jim White's book, Manchester
United, The Autobiography, outlines the circumstances of Keane's parting
of the ways with United. While he was in Dubai at the end of October 2005
recovering from injury, Keane had watched an abject performance by his
team in a 4-1 defeat to Middlesboro.

"On his return
from the break, he was still fuming. After training one day, the players
found him waiting for them in the dressing room. His verbal ambush was
unrestrained."[Page 395]. After
telling the players what he thought of them to their faces, Keane then
fulfilled a commitment to appear as the guest on the MUTV show Play
the Pundit. During the interview Keane lashed out at the United players
in general and he identified six players by name that in his view, weren't
performing up to Manchester United's standards. The show was pre-recorded
and when United's Chief Executive, David Gill, saw it he had the explosive
broadcast pulled.

Keane and Sir Alex Clash

The fact that the show
had not been broadcast was irrelevant to Sir Alex Ferguson. One of his
cardinal rules had been broken by his captain. Publicly criticising anyone
or anything in the club was taboo. Roy Keane had perhaps benefited most
from this approach by Ferguson and he was now, in effect, challenging
his manager's authority. Sir Alex arranged to have the tape played to
the United players with Keane present.

According to Jim White,
when Ferguson (who hadn't seen the tape) heard Keane's comments "...steam
began to emerge from his ears. When it was over he accused Keane of ranting,
no longer thinking like the leader of Manchester United, of losing the
key to the dressing room door."[Page 396].
Keane responded by accusing Sir Alex Ferguson of devoting too much time
to his horse the Rock of Gibraltar.

Carlos Queiroz appealed
for loyalty But Keane accused him of being "a f***ing waste of
space" and told him he was hardly in a position to preach loyalty
having gone to Real Madrid without a second thought, only to return "with
his tail between his legs" when he was fired. According to White
this was too much for Ferguson. From this moment on Ferguson knew that
there was no way that Keane could stay with the club. Ferguson signalled
this after the Champions League game against Lille in early November 2005
when he impinged upon his own sacred rule.

Sir Alex Ferguson implicitly
criticised his captain in public. In Daniel Taylor's book, This is
the One, he quotes Alex Ferguson thus; "Anything we do at
this club should remain indoors...We can't allow United players to be
demolished by criticism. Young lads like Darren Fletcher are the future
of our club and we do not want to destroy them."[Page
90].

Keane in Another Training Camp Bust-up

In another parallel with
the Saipan incident the clear-the-air
team meeting had been presaged by an earlier training camp row in a sunny
climate. Ferguson determined that in order to halt Chelsea's ascendancy
United should begin pre-season training earlier than usual.

In his book, Roy Keane:
Red Man Walking, Frank Worrall outlines Keane's unhappiness with this.
He had to break off his holiday with his wife and children in Portugal,
to join the United squad in the Algarve, also in Portugal. Ferguson and
Queiroz had decided that the players could bring their families and that
training would be confined to the mornings.

Keane was deeply unhappy
with this arrangement - either it was full-on training or not. Worrall
says that "Keane and Queiroz clashed...over the swimming pool
at the United complex - with Keane complaining that it was too cold for
his children to play in!"[Page 170].

Keane resumed his family
holiday elsewhere in Portugal. Ferguson was furious and Keane was left
out of United's pre-season trip to the Far East. The official reason given
was that Keane had a hamstring injury. After
this training camp bust-up Roy Keane played just six more matches for
United. He picked up an injury in the fifth Premier League match of the
season against Liverpool - his last appearance for United (testimonial
aside).

Parallels with Saipan
Incident

The similarities to his
departure from Manchester United with his departure from Republic of Ireland
squad in Saipan are quite striking.

* Keane is feeling moody,
belligerent and is carrying niggly injuries

* He is unhappy with the
training arrangements and has public bust-up with the coaching staff

* Goes public with his
criticisms (albeit the MUTV interview wasn't actually broadcast but the
intent was there)

* Manager calls a team
meeting to air grievances

* Keane goes on a rant
that includes unacceptable comments that undermine his manager's authority

Keane Leaves Manchester
United

Throughout his Roy
Keane's autobiography he emphasises his gratitude to Ferguson for
publicly supporting him and never criticising him in public. Ferguson's
credo is that any criticisms that have to be made are always done behind
closed doors. Manchester United does not wash it's dirty linen in public.
It would appear that Keane had learned nothing from the Saipan
affair because according to Worrall "Roy is surprised and
angry that the club overreacted so much to his words...In his view, he
just told it as he saw it - he did nothing wrong."[Page
204].

This is extraordinary as
Keane was the main beneficiary of Ferguson's protective and restrictive
approach to public criticisms of anything to do with United by insiders.
It was unforgivable by Ferguson for his team captain to break the cardinal
rule. This was just too much for Ferguson. Keane had to go and on 18 November
2005 Roy Keane departed Manchester United forever.

Interesting Footnote

Three years before his
departure from Old Trafford Keane described Alex Ferguson as, "...the
perfect manager for me."[Keane: The Autobiography
- Page 215]. Three years after he left Manchester United Keane
was quoted as saying that, "...[Brian Clough] was a genius,
an absolute genius, and certainly the best manager I played under, without
a shadow of a doubt."[Daily Mirror - 27
Aug 2008]. Roy Keane - Walker